Cars and trucks using bus-lane

[Cat]

No matter what I do, cars and trucks won't respect the bus lane. I've even restricted the use of bus-only roads to only buses and emergencies with TM:PE, though still I see cars and trucks use them...

[Cat]

And no I haven't used TM:PE to disallow lane changes and force them in to a bus lane. They voluntarily swap lanes in to the bus lane and use bus-only roads as they wish.

[kristofburger]

Private cars and trucks will use bus lanes for turning and it's perfectly legal. Vehicle restrictions in TM:PE are simply pathfinding penalties, so vehicles may still use the bus road despite of the ban if it's the only way into an area, for example.

[OneJasonBradly]

Bus lanes, I have mostly given up on them for the very reason or issue you have. They will move through traffic out of that lane unless certain conditions arise. Then again it's very possible I am expecting far too much of them. Either way...

[kristofburger]

Originally posted by Chaos:

"Cosmetic": If you switch a road with bus lanes into its equivalent plain road, the behaviour remains the same, and the routes pre and post change are the same.

My findings are, again, completely different. When I change a four or six lane road to have a bus lane, most of the time the only vehicles that drive on them are buses, taxis and emergency vehicles. The times when any other type of vehicle are on a bus lane, they're always preparing to either turn right just one or two nodes before the intersection, or parking.

What I suspect is influencing your experiences is high traffic volume, which might switch to a less strict respecting of the bus lane in favor of not getting in the way of traffic going straight. I would have to see it in action myself to confirm this though.

[Avanya]

Bus lanes are "bus priority" not "bus only" lanes. That means, that other vehicles will try to avoid them, but they often also function as turn lanes. So it's normal to see vehicles in them. For longer stretches you will see only busses use them, but there needs to be multiple nodes between intersections, so vehicles can change lanes when they need to use the bus lane to turn.

[kristofburger]

Originally posted by Chaos:

What does not work, is keeping private vehicles off the bus lanes. There are two right turns that I focus on: (1) northbound from Blackwell Ave onto Lake St and (2) westbound from Lake Street to Blackwell Ave.

(1) Right from Blackwell Ave to Northbound Lake St worked beautifully before saving, but after loading the save, cars prefer the bus lane again. Before the save, cars would turn right from the middle lane (marked "straight only") of Blackwell onto the centre lane of Lake. The save state shows, on Blackwell, an empty bus lane, and a packed middle lane. There are 3 cars turning right from the middle lane, and 1 car + 3 mopeds approaching the intersection, about to enter the bus lane. I did not notice these latter 4 vehicles before saving, but there they are.

(2) Lake to Westbound Blackwell never worked. All private cars prepare for the turn by entering the bus lane first. I expected them to make their right turn from the middle lane of Lake onto the middle lane of Blackwell, never entering the bus lane at all.

When I change roads (by upgrading) in a way that changes lane configurations at intersections, I sometimes see vehicles ignoring the new lane arrows for a little while. The behavior eventually corrects itself once newly spawned vehicles calculate the new legal route. By default you should expect vehicles to always respect lane arrows.

Originally posted by Chaos:

The usefulness of bus lanes in the real world is in congested, dense areas like downtowns, and not in the suburbs where the blocks are longer. In C:S, it's backwards, you need a long stretch so a lane-changing node is present, and even then, bus lanes are the same as normal congested lanes next to intersections. So in a typical scenario where an exclusive lane makes most sense, the C:S "bus lanes" are no help.

Also in the real world, bus lanes are typically "bus/carpool only" lanes, often physically separated with a rubber curb or a rumble strip from the general lanes.

This game has what can be described as European bus lanes, which are common along arterial roads leading to downtown cores. The theory behind the game's bus lanes is pretty much the same as what you can expect here in real life: limit use of this lane and allow buses a less impeded travel compared to a standard lane. There are several real-life examples in Helsinki, Finland.

[turnbu11]

I am having the same experience as others regarding other vehicles _ignoring_ Bus restrictions. I'm using N. E. 2. For instance, I added a bus-only parallel route into and area, with a perfectly viable, faster speed limit alternative. The non-buses ignore the alternate route, exclusively use the Bus-only lane. I have seen comments that the game Bus routes are "European" style, they are only Bus-priority, um, no, you do not use Bus-only lanes here in Germany, huge fine.